The Council Episode Four: Burning Bridges Review

Compared to the previous episodes of The Council, Burning Bridges seems to manage to both present huge plot points and yet be an episode that is smaller in scope. Doing this means there’s a lot more focus on the few characters that appear this time around, but it also makes it much easier to pick out issues.

Note that this review may contain spoilers for previous episodes of The Council.

Burning Bridges is a lot less action-packed with no major set pieces that stand out. Instead, this episode Louis interacts with only a few of the inhabitants of the island with most of the discussion taking place between himself and Mortimer. These chats do reveal a lot of information as well as secrets that have been the focus of Sarah’s investigations, with a number of revelations being dropped without much fanfare.

These do open up new talents for Louis though, which can really help in conversations with certain characters, but like other speech talents they cost points so should be used sparingly and at times when you really are at a crossroads. Stating what the new abilities are would be a major spoiler, but suffice to say that they could be a big help when the final episode rolls around.

While the introduction of new abilities is welcome, they appear in an episode that is rather droll despite the new elements of the story that change perceptions. Interacting with just a few characters and with barely any time spent with some of them, it reigns in the feeling of a big conspiracy that the other episodes had built up. In fact, you could even cut a couple of interactions out and not miss anything.

The plotting of Burning Bridges does feel like the weakest of the episodes released so far. There were some plot holes that reared their heads in very obvious manners. One involved speaking to a character about a huge revelation another character was supposed to have told Louis about, except that conversation had never happened in the first place. In my playthrough of the game so far Louis has also suffered a rather noticeable injury, but only one character commented on it while others ignored it completely – perhaps they were just being polite? Further, a plot point at the beginning of the episode seems to get abandoned around halfway through, though I’m hoping it plays a part in the final episode.

If you’re invested in The Council then episode four is obviously very necessary to play through, but while you will get a lot of answers to some of story threads that have been weaved since the first episode, more questions will arise. Don’t expect Burning Bridges to be the most exciting episode, though it does lay some new foundations that could be used rather well in the final episode.

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